Some of the content on this website requires JavaScript to be enabled in your web browser to function as intended.
This includes, but is not limited to: navigation, video, image galleries, etc. While
the website is still usable without JavaScript, it should be enabled to enjoy the full interactive experience.

»
Aims of Education

Each year one of Chapman’s distinguished faculty members shares their thoughts and reflections on the aims of education during the Convocation ceremony. This annual tradition commenced in 1994 with an address by Chapman President James L. Doti. The speeches have covered a variety of topics over the years. Some share personal stories and astute wisdom while others invoke great educators of the past, but all of them convey unbounded joy at the prospect of discovering and guiding the promise that each new class of students holds at their fingertips.

James L. Doti, Ph.D.

2017-2018

"I hope there will be times at Chapman when you, like this student, struggle with an idea and through that struggle find your way. So embrace the struggle, don’t shy from it."

"You, as students, and I, as a teacher, have been given a precious gift—the blessing of education. My sincerest good wishes for your using that gift to achieve tremendous happiness for yourselves, and those whose lives you touch."

"From where or whence does our capacity for innovation and creativity come, and why in some moments of history rather than others?" These are but a few big questions that, in one way or another, you will ask, contemplate and perhaps even answer here at Chapman. And in doing so, the character of what you have to offer and achieve as you move on will be markedly enhanced."

"I discovered that the best way to approach my studies was to create my own personal projects and questions that fascinated me the most. I would then use all the knowledge that I acquired in order to solve these personal projects and questions. I was interested not so much in studying the facts, but in studying what it meant to understand in the first place."

"That what is important is not what you know, but what you can do with what you know that brings magic to your personal experience of enquiry. What is magical about research is the discovery it engenders."

"This, in my opinion, is what the liberal arts are: a constant search for the universal unifying principle. This is the content of the conversation that we initiated almost 2,500 years ago, and which has no end."